Research News

Limited Submission Opportunity: The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Grant Programs for Organizations

Applications due April 21

Vanderbilt University may submit only two proposals per year to the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Grant Programs for Organizations. The proposals must be from separate departments, and each proposal must be submitted to a different grant program.

The foundation currently offers three organizational grant programs: Humanities, Research Libraries and the Venetian Program (note that in 2022, the Performing Arts program is by invitation-only, and Vanderbilt is ineligible to apply).

Humanities Program

The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation intends to further the humanities along a broad front, supporting projects that address the concerns of the historical studia humanitatis: a humanistic education rooted in the great traditions of the past; the formation of human beings according to cultural, moral and aesthetic ideals derived from that past; and the ongoing debate over how these ideals may best be conceived and realized.

Programs in the following areas are eligible: history; archaeology; literature; languages, both classical and modern; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences that share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines. The foundation welcomes projects that cross the boundaries between humanistic disciplines and explore the connection between the humanities and other areas of scholarship. The geographical concentration is primarily, but not exclusively, directed toward European and American history and letters, broadly defined.

Research Libraries Program

The Research Libraries Program concentrates primarily in those areas of its founders’ interests and aims to be fully complementary to the foundation’s other program areas (i.e., humanities scholarship, performing arts, and Venetian history and culture).

The overall objective of the Research Libraries Program is to improve the ability of research libraries to serve the needs of scholarship in the humanities and the performing arts, and to help make their resources more widely accessible to scholars and the general public. Wherever possible, grants to libraries seek to promote cooperative cataloging projects, with an emphasis on access to archival, manuscript and other unique sources; some elements of interpretation and exhibition; scholarly library publications; bibliographical and publishing projects of interest to research libraries; and collection-level preservation/conservation work and research.

Small-scale digitizing is eligible for support when the process is part of a clearly defined and timely scholarly project that incorporates recognized standards for metadata production, preservation and distribution. The foundation does not support massive digitizing projects of a general nature.

The geographical concentration is primarily, but not exclusively, directed toward European and American history and letters, broadly defined. Technological developments that support humanities research and access to humanities resources are also eligible. A limited number of modest grants will also be available for projects related to the history of the book, book culture, printing history and related programs. Conferences designed to address these issues in collaborative ways and programs formulated to enhance or leverage similar activity by other institutions, consortia or funding agencies will also be considered.

Venetian Program

This program supports institutions engaged in the research and dissemination of scholarship on the history of Venice and the former Venetian empire as well as contemporary Venetian society and culture.

Award Information: Awards total $30,000 and are for single-year projects.

For examples of projects that the sponsor has supported in the past, see the Humanities, Research Libraries and Venetian Program grantees pages.

Internal application instructions

Interested faculty should visit https://vanderbilt.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1796425 to apply for the internal LSO competition and to find additional information about the opportunity. The deadline for the internal competition is April 21, 2022.

Any questions about these opportunities may be directed to VU-LSO@vanderbilt.edu.